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GRAMBLING – Both Northwestern State and Grambling State shook off cold-shooting first halves in the final 20 minutes at Fredrick C. Hobdy Arena on Saturday night.

Grambling's finish was just a little stronger, as the Lady Tigers squeaked out a 44-41 victory against the visiting Lady Demons.

"Grambling did a really good job (of taking us out of what we wanted to do)," third-year co-head coach Brooke Stoehr said. "We just didn't handle it very well. We felt like going into the game, we could get some transition layups on them. They haven' t been a very good transition defense. We felt like we could get some looks, and when we did, we got a number of layups in the second half. We just didn't do enough to get a road win."

After a first half that saw neither team crack 30-percent shooting from the field, Grambling (3-5) used a strong second-half shooting performance by Bre'Nae Andrews to eek out the victory.

In one six-minute stretch of the second half, the teams combined for 11 field goals, nine of which were 3-pointers.

After shooting a combined 1-for-17 from 3-point range in the first half, the teams combined to hit 11 of 23 long-range attempts in the second half.

Grambling took its largest lead of the game on a Bre'Nae Andrews 3-pointer with 6:33 to play. Andrews' fourth successful 3 of the second half gave the Lady Tigers a 40-33 lead. Those buckets allowed her to tally a game-high 13 points.

The Lady Demons (4-3) allowed just one other field goal after Andrews' shot, but were unable to completely erase the seven-point deficit.

A pair of Chelsea Rogers 3-pointers helped cut the lead to as little as two points, but Monisha Neal sank the front end of a 1-and-1 with 12.6 seconds to play to make it a three-point game.

Northwestern State picked up an offensive rebound off a missed 3-pointer on its final possession, but Janelle Perez was unable to get enough on a desperation 3-pointer as time expired.

"As poorly as we played, we had two chances there at the end," Stoehr said. "That's what you want to give yourself. You just don't want to be in that situation on the road, because you know you have to be perfect."

Keisha Lee led Northwestern State with 11 points, while Presley Owens added nine and Amy Staha had eight.

After taking an 8-6 lead on a Lee 3-pointer with 15:55 to play in the first half, NSU did not score for more than six minutes. An Owens layup with 9:13 broke the dry spell.

As has been the case for much of the early season, the Lady Demons' defense kept the game close. Despite the long drought, NSU trailed by only three points before Owens' layup.

Neither team found an offensive groove in the first half. Northwestern State was 5-for-19 from the field in the opening 20 minutes, while Grambling was 8-for-27, as GSU took an 18-17 lead into the break.

A free throw with 1.4 seconds to play by Bre'Nae Andrews snapped a 17-all tie and allowed GSU to take the late first-half lead.

The Lady Demons will have next week off for fall semester finals and will return to action in eight days when they battle No. 4 Texas in Austin at 2 p.m. Dec. 14.